One goal of end-consumer packaging is to allow easy access but still maintain the integrity of the container and its contents including, for example, vacuum packing, pressurization, and water-tightness.
While such packages can be used for many purposes, one particularly rigorous use includes the packaging and protection of life-saving gear, including life vests, self-inflating life vests, life rafts and self-inflating life rafts, etc. The environment of use for such packages can often be harsh, with exposure to severe environmental conditions and physical hazards. Also, for both security and safety reasons, such life saving packages require frequent, e.g., daily, inspection to confirm package integrity and to detect tampering; such frequent handling can itself increase the risk of compromising the container integrity. Such uses require very heavy-duty, durable, and tear-resistant materials for the storage containers and a suitably heavy-duty sealing means that can withstand the severe conditions and hazards.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a durable package, especially for inflatable items such as life vests and life rafts, which is still easily opened in an emergency. Many such inflatable products are now packaged in a vacuum to reduce space and to protect against the environment. Vacuum packaging also minimizes the likelihood of accidental inflations. Since such packages are frequently used in emergency conditions it is important to make it possible to open the package quickly with a minimum number of steps and maximum effectiveness. A special problem with vacuum packaging is that the vacuum itself puts a load on the vacuum-sealed fabric and makes it harder to break the seal. In addition, the vacuum packaging can prevent the movement, and resulting triggering, of any internal inflation device. Accordingly a clear need has arisen to produce a high strength, air-holding, sealed container having a seal that is simultaneously tamper evident, relatively easy to break, and is capable of triggering and assisting in the inflation and release of an inflatable device in the package, like a life raft or life vest.
Current containers and sealing means take advantage of the low tear resistance of the container material to create an opening in the container. This low tear strength characteristic is what makes the use of such materials impractical for today's harsh environments and heightened inspection—if the package tears too easily it violates the hermetic seal of the container. In the alternative, if highly tear resistant materials are used, the container is too difficult to tear open and an impediment for the end-user to open in an emergency.
Examples of current containers and sealing means include a sealed rubber bag such as that disclosed in British Patent 1,122,826 issued on Aug. 7, 1968 and entitled Improvements In A Protective Bag For An Inflatable Life-Saving Apparatus. The patent describes a sealed rubber bag containing a life raft and associated gas containers. A sealing strap and main pull cord are interconnected to facilitate a single action, staged sequential bag release and automatic inflation. A single pull of the main cord unseals the rubberized, waterproof bag and simultaneously initiates the inflation of the life-saving apparatus inside. The container is sealed with a simple strip. Opening the container relies on the low strength of the sealing strip and the tearing of the sealing strip itself. This is necessary, in part, because current devices/packages rely upon the expanding raft to tear or break the seal and open the package. Furthermore, the sealing strip and the container have holes through which cords—used to activate the interior inflation device—are passed and then re-sealed with plastic or rubber. These holes present a major point of failure where the sealing means could be easily compromised, accidentally torn, or develop leaks.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,000 entitled Tear Strip Means For Plastic Packaging discloses a tough, multi-layer plastic pack (bag or pouch) suitable for vacuum packaging. Again, opening this container relies upon the low tear strength of the sealing “tear strip”. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,305 entitled Opening Arrangement For Packing Containers With Pressurized Contents, comprises a multi-layer plastic bag (flexible wall pouch) for containing pressurized contents and also requires a low tear strength material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,413 describes a Life-Saving Appliance With A Gas-Tight Covering, which comprises a vacuum-packed life-saving appliance, e.g., a life vest together with a pressure cylinder, which is surrounded by a thin plastic foil. The assemblage is then tightly surrounded by closely fitting hard foam casing as a protective measure. It appears that the entire assembly can be inflated by a pull. This container fully protects the life vest within but the size and rigidity, as well as the low strength of the materials, makes them unsuitable for the severe use and storage environment and intensive inspection regime needed for current containers.
A “clam-shell” or envelope type of package can be made with high-strength materials. The problem with these types of packages is that they are opened by separating two halves of the package; requiring the breaking or separation of at least three sealed seams or edges and can also result in the “sling-shotting” of the contents of the package as the two halves are forcefully pulled apart.
For security and safety reasons there is a need for a way to seal containers, especially containers comprised of flexible materials, while maintaining the structural integrity, including the maintaining of any hermetic, vacuum, or air-holding seal, of the container but which can be easily removed and thus opening the container to allow access to materials inside or to allow materials inside to be assembled or inflated, for example.